Former Marin County mortgage broker sentenced in $2.4 million Ponzi scheme

ROBERT DIGITALE

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | January 15, 2016

A former Marin County mortgage broker, who operated a Ponzi scheme with a Santa Rosa business partner, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco announced Thursday evening.

Diane Cobb, 58, now of Ada, Ohio, previously had pleaded guilty for her role in a scheme to defraud investors who thought they were providing money to borrowers for secured, short-term “bridge loans” to purchase residential real estate.

The investors received fake promissory notes and deeds of trust while Cobb and business partner Paul Sloane Davis diverted approximately $2.4 million “for their own personal use or to make interest payments to prior investors to keep them from discovering the true nature of the scheme,” according to a press release.

Cobb and Davis, who operated the Marin County company DM Financial, profited by more than $1 million from the scheme.

Last March, Cobb pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, four counts of mail fraud and nine counts of wire fraud.

At the sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer ordered Cobb to make approximately $1.7 million in restitution to the victims

In October, Davis, who was then 76, was sentenced to 36 months in prison.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert. digitale @pressdemocrat.com.